A Structural Analysis of the Language of School‐age Children

Westminster College is currently undertaking a research project into the language development of children of school age in conjunction with the Department of Linguistic Science, University of Reading. The collaboration represents an attempt to apply Linguistic Science to the work of classroom teachers within the mother‐tongue. The following papers indicate the nature of the project and its possible uses to the teaching profession and students of language acquisition.     

Artistic and Verbal Creative Capacity of 6‐year‐old Children and their Psychopedagogic and Social Conditioning

The subject of the study comprised individual differences of creative achievements among 6‐year‐old children in two basic and qualitatively different kinds of child's activity: verbal and artistic. The aim of the research was both the analysis of the creative capacity level differentiation and pointing out the hierarchy of factors which determine certain inter‐ and intra‐individual as well as inter‐ and intro‐group differences.

The study is based on the concepts of the creativity theory of Wallach and Kogan (1970) and the capacity theory of Renzulli (1986) and Monks (1981) developed within the framework of humanistic and cognitive psychology.

The researcher analysed 6,000 drawings and the same number of oral statements produced by 643 children attending two types of pre‐schools and living in three different habitats. The research also covered teachers working with the 6‐year‐old children.

The following were used in the study: the test ‘Draw‐a‐Man’ of Goodenough; Guilford's tests of divergent thinking; Uszynska's Questionnaire of self‐estimation; The Schaefer's and Aaronson's Classroom Behaviour Inventory Pre‐school to Primary Scale; Popek's Questionnaire of Creative Behaviour ‘KANH’, and Uszynska's Questionnaire for parents.

The results of the research confirm a great differentiation of creative capacity levels of children and suggest that the most significant factors determining them are the pedagogic ones, which may directly or indirectly be influenced by the preschool teacher.     

Gender,popularity and notions of in/authenticity amongst 12‐year‐old to 13‐year‐old school girls

This paper draws on data from a research project investigating gendered identities and interactions of high‐achieving students in Year Eight in England (12–13 years old), particularly in relation to students’ ‘popularity’ amongst their peers. As part of this study 71 students were interviewed from nine different schools in urban, rural and small town locations. From an analysis of participants’ conceptions of the characteristics of ‘popular’ and ‘unpopular’ students, this paper looks in depth at notions of in/authenticity and how it is perceived and judged in relation to the self and others. In particular, the paper focuses on the genderedness of such discourses of in/authenticity as constructed by these students, and relates such concerns to theorizations of ‘impossible’ femininity.     

The Influence of 16‐year‐old Students’ Gender,Mental Abilities,and Motivation on their Reading and Drawing Submicrorepresentations Achievements

Submicrorepresentations (SMRs) are a powerful tool for identifying misconceptions of chemical concepts and for generating proper mental models of chemical phenomena in students’ long‐term memory during chemical education. The main purpose of the study was to determine which independent variables (gender, formal reasoning abilities, visualization abilities, and intrinsic motivation for learning chemistry) have the maximum influence on students’ reading and drawing SMRs. A total of 386 secondary school students (aged 16.3 years) participated in the study. The instruments used in the study were: test of Chemical Knowledge, Test of Logical Thinking, two tests of visualization abilities Patterns and Rotations, and questionnaire on Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Science. The results show moderate, but statistically significant correlations between students’ intrinsic motivation, formal reasoning abilities and chemical knowledge at submicroscopic level based on reading and drawing SMRs. Visualization abilities are not statistically significantly correlated with students’ success on items that comprise reading or drawing SMRs. It can be also concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female students in solving problems that include reading or drawing SMRs. Based on these statistical results and content analysis of the sample problems, several educational strategies can be implemented for students to develop adequate mental models of chemical concepts on all three levels of representations.     

Fathers’ Role in Play: Enhancing Early Language and Literacy of Children with Developmental Delays

Fathers and paternal role models make a unique contribution to children’s development. There is some research to suggest that the types of play males engage in with children is typically more active and thus offers unique possibilities for embedding activities for language and literacy development. In this article, we offer suggestions for how preschool special education teachers can assist fathers and paternal role models as they work and play to enhance the language and literacy skills of their children through reading activities, dramatic play, and pretend or free play.     

The Development of Individualized Audio‐Visual Learning Units in Junior High School Biology and the Students’ Achievements

Summaries

English

The development of series of audio‐tutorial units for biological education at junior high school level is described. The effectiveness of these units was tested with students from a Kibbutz school and found to produce higher achievement than a ‘normal’ teaching approach, based on the BSCS Yellow Version (Israeli adaptation) materials. The audio‐tutorial method led to a particularly high achievement gain in the case of girls. The achievement gains resulting from the audio‐tutorial approach are explained in terms of the motivational effect of this method on students.     

Peer and self‐assessment in the first year of university

This paper reviews the literature about peer and self‐assessment in university courses from the point of view of their use, and the suitability of their use, in the first year of university study. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part argues that although first‐year students are involved in many of the studies that report on the use of peer and self‐assessment in higher education, the proportion of these studies that do so is somewhat less than in other year levels. In addition, relatively little of this work directly and explicitly discusses the suitability of peer and self‐assessment for students and courses at this year level. The second part of the paper provides an introductory exploration of the relationship between peer and self‐assessment, and specific features of first‐year assessment, learning and teaching. Three issues relating directly to the suitability of peer and self‐assessment in the first year are explored. In the third part, the paper briefly discusses the desirability of implementing peer and self‐assessment, in general, before seeking to extend this specifically to the first year. The paper concludes by recommending that greater use can and should be made of peer and self‐assessment in the first year of university study.     

A Developmental and Cross‐cultural Study on the Interpersonal Cognition of Swedish and Japanese Children

The interpersonal cognition of Japanese children is compared with that of Swedish children in an attempt to understand how far sex‐inequality in society influences the interpersonal cognition of children. The findings support the view that the sex‐difference observed in Japanese children is the result of the sex‐inequality in the Japanese society: the sex‐difference observed in Swedish subjects is smaller in comparison with that of Japanese subjects and is insignificant in the older children. The development of emotional and conjectural cognition of Japanese children is affected by the interpersonal relations peculiar to Japanese society.     

Examining the Effects of Problem‐solving Training on the Acquisition of Interpersonal Problem‐solving Skills by 5‐Year‐old Children in Turkey

This study was designed and carried out to examine the effect of problem‐solving training on the acquisition of interpersonal problem‐solving skills by 5 year‐old children. The subjects consisted of 74 5 year‐olds (34 girls and 40 boys) attending a kindergarten in Ankara, Turkey. Of these children 38 were assigned to the experimental group and 36 to the control group. The procedure consisted of pre‐testing, training and post‐testing activities. The training phase involved a programme of activities that required working with children for a certain period of time every day for 14 weeks. In the statistical analysis of the data collected ‘Chi‐Square (x²) test for significance’ was used for the evaluation of the differences between the experimental and control groups. The results were also evaluated on the basis of ‘the significance test for the difference between two means’. This was used to study the relationship between variables. The results showed that problem‐solving training was effective in helping 5 year‐old kindergarten children acquire interpersonal problem‐solving skills.     

A Twin Study into the Genetic and Environmental Influences on Academic Performance in Science in nine‐year‐old Boys and Girls

We investigated for the first time the genetic and environmental aetiology behind scientific achievement in primary school children, with a special focus on possible aetiological differences for boys and girls. For a representative community sample of 2,602 twin pairs assessed at age nine years, scientific achievement in school was rated by teachers based on National Curriculum criteria in three domains: Scientific Enquiry, Life Processes, and Physical Processes. Results indicate that genetic influences account for over 60% of the variance in scientific achievement, with environmental influences accounting for the remaining variance. Environmental influences were mainly of the non‐shared variety, suggesting that children from the same family experience school environments differently. An analysis of sex differences considering differences in means, variances, and aetiology of individual differences found only differences in variance between the sexes, with boys showing greater variance in performance than girls.     

Models of Micro‐Organisms: Children’s knowledge and understanding of micro‐organisms from 7 to 14 years old

Current approaches to science‐technology‐society (STS) education focus primarily on the controversial socio‐scientific issues that arise from the application of science in modern technology. This paper argues for an interdisciplinary approach to STS education that embraces science, technology, history, and social and cultural studies. By employing a case study of traditional papermaking technology, it investigates how the interactions between technology and science can be explored in an authentic societal and cultural context across a historical time span. The term technology‐society‐science (TSS) is used to represent an alternative approach to linking technology, society, and science that aims to redress the imbalance between science and technology, and to resolve the tension between two diverging goals of STS education. The educational implications of this alternative approach to STS education are discussed.     

The Use of Correspondence Training in Improving the In‐class Behaviour of Very Troublesome Secondary School Children

Seven children were identified by staff consensus as being the most troublesome pupils in a comprehensive secondary school. A study was then conducted to examine the effects of ‘say‐do’ correspondence training in reducing the amount of troublesome behaviour engaged in by these pupils in the classroom. Such behaviour was defined as ‘talking out of turn’ and ‘hindering other children’, behaviours which had already been found to be the most common categories of troublesome behaviour for secondary classroom teachers.

A multiple baseline across subjects design was employed which brought about a reduction in these two behaviours for three girls and three boys. The behaviour of a fourth boy, however, did not improve beyond the first half of the intervention period. This outcome is discussed in terms of a general deterioration in behaviour and competing contingencies in the classroom. There was some evidence of the generalisation of effects across settings and an increase in the amount of homework submitted.

These results build upon existing research which shows that correspondence training is a useful strategy for dealing with some common classroom behaviour problems. This paper reports an extension of the application of the correspondence training procedures to secondary school pupils of both sexes and covers a broad range of academic ability.     

Effectiveness of a Family‐focused Early Intervention Program in the Education of Children with Hearing Impairments Living in Rural Areas

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a family‐focused early intervention program developed to meet the needs of children with hearing loss and their parents. The participants were 12 children with severe and profound hearing loss who lived in a rural area of Turkey. They did not have any additional disabilities. Their ages ranged between 0 to 4 years. These children and their families had not participated in any intervention program before this research was designed. The 12 participants and their families were assigned to either an experimental or a comparison group. The data was collected before and after the implementation of the program, using three instruments; a preliminary information form for parents, a Scale of Parental Needs and an observation form to evaluate verbal communication. After the implementation of the intervention program, statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and comparison groups regarding their verbal communication.     

Children’s Typically‐Perceived‐Situations of Force and No Force in the Context of Australia and Korea

Typically‐Perceived‐Situation (TPS) refers to the situation rising spontaneously in an individual’s mind when she/he first thinks of a phenomenon or concept. The purpose of this study is to go well beyond the many studies that describe conceptions of force and explore children’s TPS of “force is acting on a thing” and “force is not acting on a thing”, and to do this in the differing contexts of Australia and Korea. Data were collected by drawings and written explanations from 145 Grade 6 Australian children and 150 Grade 6 Korean children. These data showed some significant differences between the Australian children’s and Korean children’s TPSs. For example, considering the whole context of children’s TPS, the contexts of “someone pushes or pulls something” and “someone/something is floating in the air or not moving because there is no gravity” were the most frequent ones, as a “force” and as a “no force” situation respectively, in the case of Australian children, while “a sort of energy is provided into someone/something and they can be active/working” and “a sort of energy is not provided into someone/something and they cannot be active/working”, were most frequent in the case of Korean children. These differences are very likely the consequence of different everyday meanings for the word “force” in the two cultures. In addition, it appears that these children’s TPS affect their judgement of “force” and “no force”.     

Needing to be ‘in the know’: strategies of subordination used by 10–11‐year‐old schoolboys

It is important for educators to understand the tactics used in subordination between young people if they are going to take effective measures to counter them in their pedagogical practice. The paper explores strategies used by schoolboys aged 10–11 years to subordinate and position boys at the bottom of the pupil hierarchy. The findings are based on data gathered from a year‐long empirical study (between 1998 and 1999) set in three UK junior schools which were differentiated by the social characteristics of their intake. The research emphasizes the role of the body in the construction of masculinity. The hegemonic, or most idealized, form of masculinity at each school was constructed around activity and, in particular, various forms of embodied physicality/athleticism (exemplified through skill, strength, fitness and speed), and boys who did not wish to, or who were unable to, use these resources generally found themselves marginalized and/or subordinated. Many of the subordinated forms were symbolically assimilated to femininity, and the paper proposes that the main strategies of subordination can be summarized under the generic heading of ‘difference’. The final section discusses the pervasive use of homophobia and concludes that it should be conceptualized in terms of gender as well as sex.     

Language and Identity Construction of China’s Rural-Urban Migrant Children: An Ethnographic Study in an Urban Public School

This article investigates the identity construction process of China’s rural-urban migrant children through analyses of their discourses and of their use of language. Rural children have relocated to the urban centers with their parents on a massive scale over the past decades as China has undergone rapid economic changes. Many migrant children are able to attend urban public schools, and their identity construction emerges as an important issue that attracts increasing public and scholarly attention. This study draws on ethnographic data and presents four examples to illustrate the complex process of migrant identity construction. The results show that the migrant children deploy a range of linguistic features and claim multiple identities; in order for their identities to be established in social reality, they have to go through negotiation processes in which their identities are evaluated, ratified, challenged, or denied. Language is at the center of such processes.     

A genetically sensitive investigation of the effects of the school environment and socio‐economic status on academic achievement in seven‐year‐olds

Although it is well established that school characteristics (SCH) and socio‐economic status (SES) are associated with academic achievement (ACH), these correlations are not necessarily causal. Because academic achievement shows substantial genetic influence, it is useful to embed such investigations in genetically sensitive designs in order to examine environmental influences more precisely by controlling genetic influence on ACH. In the first study of this kind for academic achievement, data were collected for 1,063 same‐sex pairs of seven‐year‐old MZ and DZ twins for teacher‐assessed ACH, UK statistics on SCH, and parent‐reported SES. Exclusive of genetic influence on school achievement, shared environment (environmental influences that make siblings similar) accounts for 12% of the variance in academic achievement. SCH accounts for 17% and SES accounts for 83% of this shared environmental variance. Exclusive of genetic and shared environmental influence including SCH and SES, nonshared environment (environmental influences that do not make siblings similar) accounts for 19% of the variance in academic achievement. The importance of nonshared environmental influences on academic achievement leads to the question of what these child‐specific experiences might be that are not shared by children in the same family, school, and classroom.     

Design and Evaluation of a Programme to Promote Prosocial‐Altruistic Behaviour in the School

Abstract

This article describes a programme of educational intervention aimed at the development of prosocial‐altruistic behaviour, and presents a study which evaluated its efficacy. The sample comprised 110 subjects, aged between 10 and 12 years, from four class‐groups. The intervention, which consisted of a series of activities intended to encourage empathy, perspective‐taking, having the concept of a person, and co‐operation, was carried out by the teacher‐tutor of each group in 15 weekly sessions. The pre‐test/post‐test comparisons showed a significant increase in prosocial‐‐altruistic behaviour (measured by a sociogram on “Consoling and Defending” behaviour and a questionnaire on Prosocial behaviour), as well as an improvement in the capacity for perspective‐taking and in the climate in the classroom.     

Is every child's voice heard? Researching the different ways 3‐year‐old children communicate and make meaning at home and in a pre‐school playgroup

This ESRC‐funded study explores how 3‐year‐old children use a range of ‘voices’ during their first year in pre‐school, investigating how they make and express meaning ‘multimodally’ through combinations of talk, body movement, facial expression and gaze in the two different settings of home and playgroup. Using longitudinal ethnographic video case studies of four children, two boys and two girls, the study identifies patterns in the children's uses of different communicative strategies that relate to the dynamics of the institutional and immediate contexts in which they are situated. The findings imply that the current focus on talk in the early years may be detracting from the diversity of ways children make and express meaning.